The images and data Pluto arrive in dribs and drabs. Is that it takes time to browse the huge distance between the probe and Earth. The latest data that the New Horizons team received could be an enormous ice plain on the dwarf planet
New Horizons. Discovery of an icy plain Pluto
C east Tuesday that the New Horizons probe is placed closer to its goal, the planet Pluto. Although overflight lasted only a few minutes, the probe was able to collect a lot of data and take snapshots of the little planet. All these data come gradually to the New Horizons team on Earth who quickly analyze the As and inform us of their findings.
After discovering the mountains vertiginous earlier in the week, NASA revealed last Friday to look at a large icy plain which lies in an area called “Area Tombaugh.” “It is not an easy area to decipher” , one of the scientists said Jeffrey Moore, adding: “we do not see impact of recent craters and surface this area is relatively recent, less than 100 million years. She’s probably still being shaped by geological processes. ” “The discovery of this vast plain young enough without impact craters on Pluto exceeds all our expectations,” . Scientists have named this icy plain “Plain Sputnik”.
Location of Ice plain on Pluto – capturing NASA website screen
The Pluto’s atmosphere escapes from the planet
The scientists also discovered that Pluto’s atmosphere, composed primarily of nitrogen, continues to escape of the planet due to a too low gravity at a rate “of about 500 tons per hour” specified a scientific mission Fran Bagenal.
For the now, the data received only 2% of the data collected by the probe New Horizons felt Alan Stern, principal scientist for the mission. And Jeffrey Moore complete: “We are only in the early days of our analysis after the close overflight of the probe.” “As amazing as these images, we are only at the very beginning of our investigations, we always faced a number of assumptions and we know that definitive conclusions now would be dangerous” .
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